Imagine if you had some pain and nausea so you went to see the doctor and the doctor examined you and said, “You have very beautiful eyes, and your hair is perfect!” Such flattery might bring a smile to your lips, but it would do nothing to address the sickness in your body. Then imagine that a nurse walks in and tells you that you have contracted a disease, and the doctor turns and angrily calls her a whore and has her dragged out of the building. Wouldn’t you be shocked at the behaviour? Yet this is what is happening every day in Pakistan.
No, it is not doctors who are refusing to diagnose their patients and attacking those who try to help them, it is our leaders and certain sectors of society that are trying to hide the sickness in our society and attacking those who offer diagnoses and cures. Pakistan’s Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy explained this perfectly at a press conference:
“It’s only when we start talking on issues in our society that we will be able to solve them,” she said. “Hushing up these problems will not help matters.”
“We are not going to make the country a better place if we keep glorifying the good things about it. We must talk about issues that confront the country.”
The present case of our society is one in which anyone who dares to talk about our problems is branded as anti-Pakistan, or a traitor, or worse. We are suffering from cancer but only want doctors who tell us we have very healthy fingernails and eye lashes. If we continue to attack those trying to help us, how can we ever expect to be cured? Any doctor who refused to give an honest diagnosis and treatment would be guilty of malpractice, is it any different?
